Development of leukocytes countin blood of neonatal pigs after colostrum intake

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the development of white blood cells in blood of neonatal piglets immediately after birth and colostrum intake. Together 8 newborn piglets (Large white) were included in this study. Piglets were during whole experiment under his mother and the colostrum intake was ad libitum. Blood samples (1.0 mL) were collected before colostrum intake (0 hour) and on 3rd, 6th and 12th hour after first colostrum intake. Heparinized blood samples were used for total white blood cells, lymphocytes, mid-sized cells and granulocytes determinations. Blood samples were analyzed using haematological analyser Abacus Junior Vet (Diatron, Austria). The results were statistically analyzed by a one-way ANOVA, the differences in average means of blood cells between different sampling times were tested with T-test. The content of white blood cells (P < 0.01), lymphocytes (P < 0.001), mid-sized cells (P < 0.05) as well as granulocytes (P < 0.05) changed statistically during the first 12 hours of piglets life. Only in the samples collected on 6th and 12th hour of piglets life, the white blood cells (11.68 resp. 10.82 G*l-1) and lymphocytes (8.13 resp. 9.63 G*l-1) reached the lower physiological range for pigs. Other white blood cells indices of neonatal piglets did not reach the lower limit of the reference range. However in all white blood cells indices, we detected very high differences between minimal and maximal values. It points out, that some newborn piglets had very low, whereas some newborn piglets had very high content of white blood indices and it suggest, that some piglets of the litter had better protection, whereas another piglets not.